None of Santos, Meram, or Hansen should be guaranteed starters. Hell, it'd be debatable if they would even be rotational starters. For me, winger is our #1 concern, right now, if this is our roster. We need at least 1 starting winger who can produce. If Trapp leaves, we need a CM/DM. Beyond that, replacement for Steffen, Pipa, and Afful are the next priorities.
On Maloney, he's still learning the position, I think. I also expect he's cheap. He was a striker in college--or at least led PSU in goals three seasons (and was Big 10 offensive player of the year once). But that's the same path St. Dunc took, as he was a striker at CS Fullerton (I think he still owns all of CSF's scoring records). You know what a striker is trying to do, if you've been one. I know I never regretted (except at the time) playing defender my first year of amateur ball as it gave me a lot of insight into playing striker later on.
Woof is right. Bendik is an asshole and not one particularly good at his trade. Finding it hard to trust Onstad on this one.
Bendik is better than it seems because Orlando's defense has been so horrible for years. Depending on cost, he might be worth a shot. Why is he an asshole?
Nothin' like snagging a keeper who got benched by the worst team in the Conference to back up and take over for Steffen... Would have much preferred us search for some young, raw talent that could work with Steffen a bit before he left than a mediocre guy who has splashed a little quality here and there.
It's a puzzling pick up, but maybe Joe Bendik doesn't get beat on eleven straight penalty shots in the first open cup game?
I want an experienced backup--in case we have trouble finding a guy in the summer window. $50K isn't a lot to pay for that.
If we pay him 50k, sure, but that's just the cost of his rights. What we pay for his salary will determine how good it bad this is. I'm hoping this is just experienced backup depth, while we continue to search for Steffen's replacement. Hopefully we also don't wait until Summer to bring in that replacement, as said above. If Bednik gets a sniff of a non--emergency start, I might go all @hangthadj.
Good backup. Best backup we will have had in quite a while. He got benched by Orlando, but their coach is terrible, the whole team is. So I don’t draw much from that. As long as Bendik is Steffen’s backup, and the backup to whomever we bring it to replace him in the summer, I’m fine with this. If he is a short term starter for the second half of the season because we can’t get a replacement in for some reason... not ideal, but could definitely do worse. He’s a decent/solid domestic GK. If the plan is for Bendik to replace Steffen, I’m not a fan. I’m sure this has the blessing of Porter and (?) Curtis. GK didn’t seem a big concern for Porter in Portland, so I’d be worried he might see him as the long term replacement. Just have to wait and see what the thinking here is.
Did you expect a better backup GK or something? Your ability to say how shit everything is is equal parts commendable and irritating.
Yeah, I did. And thank you for your kind words. Look, maybe I bought into the hype that everyone has put forth about our new saviors from Cleveland. I heard all the trumpets about Jimmy and Dee's money and how we were gonna start acting like a big club. Instead we have decisions that look much like the Cleveland Browns of the last 6 or 7 years. Maybe we should have paid more attention to that. (And don't bother correcting me about the upwards trajectory of the Browns. The NFL is a horrible product which I haven't watched in years, I just know the Browns are always bad. You can't convince me otherwise.) In looking at the first few decisions brought to us from the Mistakes from The Lake we have a completely underwhelming coaching hire and we sent $50,000 to Orlando for a bad keeper. You'll have to excuse me if I'm failing to recognize the ambition.....
Name a GK that would be a better backup from within the league. Unless you wanna use an international spot on a backup GK, which would be insane.
Or........ Give a half decent scout $5000 to go out and search our lower leagues and playgrounds for a decent keeper. You'll save the $50,000 you are paying a division rival, you'd get a keeper likely below Bednik's salary, and you'd focus on other areas of the team. It's amateur hour at Black and Gold Boulevard. It's the same sort of retread mindset that lands us with Caleb Porter while the rest of the league is moving forward. It's brutal.
Your going overboard a lil bit here, Bendeik hopefully replaces Kempin and in the summer or next season we will be able to find another young upcoming GK with potential like Zack
Kempin was one of the best keepers in USL, and was thought to have legit potential. How that work out for lower league scouting? I just looked through the salaries of every MLS GK. I dare you to find someone who makes less than Bendik who is without question better, other than Steffen (lol) and Hamid (I'm sure his Danish club is paying most his wages). I'll save you the time, you won't. FCC crushed the USL this year, best team in league history, then went and signed some Polish dude who last played in the Spanish second division a couple years ago to be their starter in MLS next year. They clearly don't have a lot of faith in what they have. If they don't, who else is there really? Just stop already, you just like to complain for the sake of complaining. It's a backup GK. I'm trying to plan a vacation here, and you have me spending time defending Joe fvcking Bendik to be our backup GK, instead of.... Buffon? Rui Patricio? Some second division journeyman from Orange County FC? Charleston Battery? Madness.
Bad scouting. I've already said I don't want a current MLS backup keeper. Are you paying attention? It's foolish and lazy to limit yourself to that pool. Come on. Woof. Now we are admitting FCC has more ambition than the Crew. What point are you arguing again? For some of the season, surely. We still don't have a starter for when Steffen leaves. I love me some Rui Patricio. But I'm more concerned about your vacation. You seem a bit agitated. Perhaps go somewhere where you can sip a Coco Loco under a Parasol, like Tulum. It would do wonders for your stress levels. I'm here to help.
Defending Joe Bednik, planning exotic vacations..... If I knew the Big Soccer Crew Board Moderator was a paid position from the front office, I would have applied. You should have told me, Kyle!!!
Top Drawer Soccer put out their first 2019 mock draft and have us picking the captain of the 2018 college cup champions Maryland, center mid Amar Sejdic. He would be a great backup for Artur or Trapp.
If there's one thing I'm sure of it's that TDS cannot project the #19 pick in the MLS draft. Hell, if they can get 3 of the top 5 right it would be a miracle. As for Bendik, I don't get why we paid anything at all for a player whose option was declined and who would have been available for free come Tuesday.